Odd Town is difficult to recommend broadly. Its unusual visuals, charming animations, and strange inhabitants give it an identity I appreciate, and there is fun here once its rules make sense. The onboarding and controller feel make reaching that point harder than it should be. If its particular brand of weirdness appeals to you, you might enjoy the visit. I would understand just as easily if you decided to leave early.
Truckful has lovely handling, a compelling mystery, and an opening I genuinely loved. There is a good game here, but equipment restrictions and repeated lost progress made staying in love with it much harder than it should have been.
Gears of War: E-Day is an extraordinary production and a powerful return to a world I have loved since that time when I finished the first Gears in that arcade place. Its characters, atmosphere, and collapsing city stayed with me, even when its combat outlasted my enthusiasm. Fans who still love that rhythm will find plenty to celebrate. I came away wishing it had pushed further, but also deeply impressed by how much care went into bringing this nightmare to life.
I went in hoping for a clever blend of two genres and came away with one of my favorite games of the year. The bosses can be punishing, and the Xbox Ally X has occasional dips, but neither issue took much away from the mystery, the remarkable art, or the simple joy of finding a new way through Silver Pines. I loved every minute of the 14 hours it took me to complete. An essential game!
RetroSpace is uneven, but its strengths are easy to remember: a compelling station to explore, a weird story I wanted to understand, satisfying weapon progression, and enough interactive tools to make me think creatively. I wish more of my improvised solutions worked, and the later navigation, menus, bugs, and performance all need improvement. Still, the good outweighed the frustration for me.
Remedy Entertainment has created another absolute triumph with Control Resonant. By transporting their paranatural madness into a mind-bending, gravity-defying New York and delivering a razor-sharp brawler combat system, they have exceeded expectations on every front. Minor performance hiccups aside, this is an astonishing achievement and another definitive masterpiece from one of the most creative studios in gaming.
For Walking Dead fans, this is still a decent way to spend a few hours revisiting the show’s characters and smashing heads. The pixel-art presentation looks great, Michonne is fun to play, and the early combat has a satisfying snap. Just be ready for a game that becomes more frustrating and repetitive the longer it goes on, especially once every other enemy decides to pull out a gun.
The Alighieri Circle: Dante's Bloodline is a beautiful disappointment. Its atmosphere carries real craft, and the puzzles occasionally demand actual thought, which I appreciated more than I expected. But the story never justifies the journey, the environments repeat too quickly, and the performances undercut the mood they are meant to sell.
On the ROG Xbox Ally X, the controller-first layout and compact stages make it an easy fit for short handheld sessions. That is probably the best way to play it, one or two stages at a time, before the repetition settles in. Blades & Battles understands the arcade game it wants to honor, but it recreates the limitations along with the charm. It is functional, mildly enjoyable, and better with a friend, yet too shallow to leave much of an impression.
I can see the vision, and the phenomenal takedowns prove the developers have talent. But until the camera is fixed, melee is tightened up, overall jank is fixed and the rest of the campaign arrives, Blackwood remains an unpolished prototype of the John Wick shooter we are all waiting for and it should have been labeled as Early Access.
Returning to the Zone after nearly two years felt like meeting an old friend who might rob me, shoot me, and leave my body beside an anomaly. The new regions are beautiful, the missions are some of the best in the game, and Series X performance is finally where I wanted it at launch. It is so good to be back. But seriously, f*ck the Zone.
This is how you revive a dormant series. Capcom did not rely on nostalgia or imitate every modern action game around it. It found an identity in the physical clash of swords, then built a funny, bloody, surprisingly heartfelt adventure around that foundation. I started with no history with Onimusha and finished convinced that Way of the Sword belongs beside Capcom's very best work.
If you miss shooters that let excellent gun feel carry a focused linear campaign, SPRAWL zero is an easy recommendation. SPRAWL zero borrows openly from the classics, but its disposable arsenal and gravity glove give it an identity of its own. Once the shoot, yeet, pull, and repeat rhythm clicks, putting it down is the hardest part.
Fear The Timeloop is rough, ambitious, and easy to like. Better voice acting and smoother character animation would have made its story far more convincing, and the central mechanic could matter more for careful players. Still, the atmosphere, lighting, puzzles, map design, and satisfying combat deliver the survival horror experience I wanted. This is exactly the sort of budget game I love discovering: familiar at first glance, but confident enough to bring one genuinely smart idea of its own.
Lou's Lagoon knows what makes a cozy crafting game compelling. Gathering with the Swirler feels good, upgrades have a purpose, the islands are fun to explore, and building gives every load of materials somewhere useful to go. The missing-uncle mystery may not linger in my mind, but the pleasure of completing another project does. The tiny inventory is a persistent annoyance, yet it did not spoil a bright, relaxing adventure that I had a genuinely good time playing.
The Sinking City 2 is one of the biggest surprises I have played in a long time. It takes the familiar structure of modern Resident Evil, fills it with a fascinating Lovecraftian world, and gives the nightmare a sincere love story worth fighting through. Frogwares has created a phenomenal survival horror game, and I absolutely adored it.
Box Knight's best ideas are trapped inside a loop that quickly becomes dull. The presentation kept me interested for a while, but presentation alone cannot carry a game built around repeating the same fights. If the charming office-fantasy theme is enough for you, there is some fun to be found here, especially with local co-op. For me, though, the one-button combat and weak build crafting turned too much of the experience into busywork.
I love creative stuff like this. Future Knight may rely on a familiar jump-and-shoot foundation, but its presentation, dual-character design, and excellent bosses give it a personality that few games can match. It played beautifully on the ROG Xbox Ally X, and turning that hardware into a giant futuristic Game & Watch is a novelty I will not forget anytime soon.
Choppa: Rescue Rivals does not reinvent the side-scrolling action game, and its occasional difficulty spikes can interrupt an otherwise relaxed rhythm. What it does offer is a polished, funny, and consistently creative campaign built around controls that simply feel good. The changing tools keep the rescues lively, the presentation is bursting with charm, and unlocking a helicopter shaped like a pug never stopped being funny.
Duskfade is a lovely return to a style of game that deserves more attention. Its combat is fairly simple and its influences are obvious, but neither issue stopped me from loving the adventure. The gorgeous environments, smart level design, satisfying secrets, and excellent traversal make it an easy recommendation for anyone who misses classic 3D action platformers.